2022 RC LASER AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS – Report & Results

Congratulations to Peter Burford #147 from Paradise RYC for winning the 2022 Australian National Championships last weekend – 2nd Place went to Derick Warne #228 SCRSC , 3rd to Geoffrey Morris #260 SCRSC.

Lake Kawana in Bokarina on the Sunshine Coast produced varied conditions for the 2022 RC Laser Nationals sailed over the weekend 19^th and 20^th November.

To make the event more attractive the organizers changed the event from three to two days and ended up with 19 entries. There were two withdraws so we had seventeen on the water.

Saturday morning saw a building N to NE with the fleet starting with A rigs and as the day wore on most going down to C’s. The NE corner of Lake Kawana is notorious for its fluky conditions and Saturday was no different. Get it right and big gains could be made, get it wrong and you paid the price. Sunday’s forecast was terrible, 25kt plus with rain and thunderstorms in the afternoon. Fortunately they got it wrong and we had wonderful conditions. The wind was NW so we sailed off the western bank and whilst the direction remained pretty constant velocity varied considerably with sailors swopping between A’s and C’s.

Peter Burford quickly demonstrated his superiority with five firsts, a second and two thirds in the first eight races – pretty hard to beat! Geoff Morris, Daniel Bergan and Derick Warne were left battling for the spoils. Geoff was suffering severe pain from his damaged shoulder and went off to hospital for attention so didn’t sail the last two races giving Derick his second overall. Richard Fisher arrived late from Tasmania with his borrowed boat and immediately showed his ability ending up with no less than seven wins in the fourteen races he sailed. One wonders how different the results would be had Richard arrived in time?

The RO Bill Clancy assisted by Neil Carroll did a wonderful. One race was abandoned on the first leg due to huge wind shift that made the beat a reach. Fortunately, the switch didn’t last long, the race was restarted with a true beat.

There can’t be too many Clubs that provide morning tea and coffee plus Lamingtons then gourmet Hamburgers cooked on site for lunch with soft drinks and cold water plus fresh fruit all included in the entry fee. Everyone complimented the chefs too.

Thanks to INOX who proved us with an assortment of their wonderful products. Every sailor in the fleet went home with a prize. The first choice of their product range went to Bobby Caldow who pulled off an immaculate port tack start easily crossing his starboard competitors. Also, every visitor took home a bottle of Captains Honey donated by Club members, the McAuley family. A special thanks to Cliff Bromiley who kindly donated a new sail which was won in the lucky draw by Peter Close.

The SCRSC team of volunteers did a wonderful job and are to be congratulated on doing a great job over the two days.

All in all, a wonderful two days of highly competitive racing convincingly won by Peter Burford followed by Derick Warne and Geoff Morris. Full results can be found on the QRYA and ARYA sites.